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Tom Reed,who previously covered the Blue Jackets for The Dispatch, is back after a five-year absence while working for the newspaper in that city up north: Cleveland. Follow him on Twitter at @treed1919

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Ready For The Ruckus

Posted Apr 20, 2014
by Aaron Portzline

It's easy to say act like you've been there before. But what if you've never been there before?

The Blue Jackets were simply enthralled with Saturday's 4-3 double-overtime win in Game 2 of their first-round series with the Pittsburgh Penguins. To come back from a 3-1 deficit, on the road, in a Stanley Cup playoff game is a rare feat indeed.

But it was more than that to so many people. The first playoff win in Blue Jackets' franchise history resonated with a fanbase that wondered if such a moment would ever be theirs to embrace.

"Just reading Twitter after the game, some of the comments from people around the city ... " Blue Jackets center Ryan Johansen said. "We were sitting in the (dressing room in Nationwide Arena) this morning, almost in shock that the team here hasn't found a way to win a playoff game in 14 years.

"We're happy we could get that out of the way. There was a lot of focus on it, and everybody's thinking it was a success now that we finally got our first win. But our vision, our focus is way beyond that."

Now comes the reward.

Game 3 will be played at 7 p.m. Monday in Nationwide Arena. It will be a standing-room only crowd. It will be plug-your-ears, can't-hear-the-cannon loud. (That rhymes.)

"I was here for the Nashville game last year, and I'm expecting it to be louder, although i don't know how that's possible," left wing Nick Foligno said. "I think every guy in here is looking forward to seeing the atmosphere."

"I'm just waiting to talk with Richie and hopefully I can get in there tomorrow," Foligno said.

Richards said: "He skated today; he's good. We'll see about getting him into the lineup tomrorow."

There will likely be another lineup change.

Defenseman Fedor Tyutin suffered an upper body injury during the first period on Saturday. It looked like most of the damage was done on a check by Pittsburgh's Chris Kunitz on the first shift. Tyutin was bent over, wincing, as he skated off to the bench just after that hit. The final blow was delivered by Pittsburgh's Tanner Glass on the last shift of the first period. Tyutin did not play after the first period.

Richards has put the Blue Jackets into lock-down mode regarding injuries. This is the playoffs, people.

It's not clear how the Blue Jackets might adjust their defense, assuming Tyutin can't play, and it sure seems as if he's out at least for the short term.

During the regular season, Richards put Jack Johnson -- Tyutin's typical partner -- on the left side and elevated David Savard from the third pair to the first pair. Either Nick Schultz or Dalton Prout will go in on the third pair next to Nikita Niktin.

"Feds is just steady Eddie for us back there," defenseman James Wisniewski said. "He plays big minutes for us. But the way our defense corps has played all year, we've had guys step up. Now it's the same."

The Blue Jackets will gather at Nationwide Arena for a morning skate on Monday. The glass has been polished, bunting has been hung and the ice has updated in a very unusual way in Columbus, Ohio: it reads 'Stanley Cup Playoffs' on each blue line.

When the Blue Jackets arrived at the rink today, huge posters -- each of them a large letter, filled with messages by kids from local schools, rinks and Children's Hospital -- lined the hallway that leads to the Blue Jackets' dressing room. They spelled: "Let's Go Jackets!"

"We all have expectations of what it's going to be like," Johansen said, "but I can't wait to see it. Just walking around the room this morning, we were all kind of wishing we were playing right now.

"It's going to be an unbelievable environment. It's cool that most of us will have our families here to enjoy it with us. Hopefully we can get off to a good start here at home."

Wisniewski wants fans to celebrate, but the Blue Jackets and players to remain cerebral.

"It's obviously huge; it took 14 years to win a playoff game here," Wisniewski said. "It doesn't really mean anything now, though. Our goal is to win the Stanley Cup, and to do that you have to win 16 games.

"Right now, the fans can celebrate, and they're probably going to be very excited come Monday. But for us, it's over. Move on, look at the mistakes we can fix and the good things we can build on for Monday's game."

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